Gunfire

If the Peninsula's elected officials have strategies for suppressing violent crime in our communities, we're all ears — though we may not be able to hear over the gunshots. In what seems to be a daily occurrence, gunfire in Newport News and Hampton is taking lives, wrecking families and eroding our sense of public safety. Voters head to the polls in a little more than two weeks to select the membership of councils in both cities. While those seeking office should be prepared to advance long-term, comprehensive plans to deter violent crime, citizens deserve solutions now, when the bullets continue to fly. Clinton Stonewall Jackson Sr., a 79-year-old Newport News resident, was shot to death in his car on 33rd Street on a Tuesday afternoon.

If the Peninsula's elected officials have strategies for suppressing violent crime in our communities, we're all ears — though we may not be able to hear over the gunshots. In what seems to be a daily occurrence, gunfire in Newport News and Hampton is taking lives, wrecking families and eroding our sense of public safety. Voters head to the polls in a little more than two weeks to select the membership of councils in both cities. While those seeking office should be prepared to advance long-term, comprehensive plans to deter violent crime, citizens deserve solutions now, when the bullets continue to fly. Clinton Stonewall Jackson Sr., a 79-year-old Newport News resident, was shot to death in his car on 33rd Street on a Tuesday afternoon.

Newsome Park Elementary School was on lockdown Thursday after reports of gunshots being fired near the school, according to police. Witnesses told police that three men were seen running from the 4200 block of Newsome Park Drive, according to Newport News police spokesman Harold Eley. School employees heard the shots and locked down the school at 3:35 p.m., police said. The reported gunfire location borders the rear portion of the school's property, which is located at 4200 Marshall Avenue.

Newport News police say Teunsha Vick, a candidate for City Council and cousin of NFL quarterback Michael Vick, does not appear to have been the target of gunfire Monday night that shattered the back window of her SUV as she was driving. Vick, 28, was on the 600 block of Ivy Avenue after dropping off her son, when bullets hit the passenger side of her vehicle, according to police statements and interviews Vick gave to the Daily Press and several TV stations. Police spokeswoman Holly McPherson said Tuesday that after examining evidence at the scene and speaking to witnesses, investigators believe "at least two individuals were shooting at one another and (Vick's)

Newport News police say Teunsha Vick, a candidate for City Council and cousin of NFL quarterback Michael Vick, does not appear to have been the target of gunfire Monday night that shattered the back window of her SUV as she was driving. Vick, 28, was on the 600 block of Ivy Avenue after dropping off her son, when bullets hit the passenger side of her vehicle, according to police statements and interviews Vick gave to the Daily Press and several TV stations. Police spokeswoman Holly McPherson said Tuesday that after examining evidence at the scene and speaking to witnesses, investigators believe "at least two individuals were shooting at one another and (Vick's)

A Newport News elementary school was locked down Friday after a gunfight between two groups of teenagers broke out nearby. The precautionary lockdown of South Morrison Elementary, 746 Adams Drive, was imposed about 3:30 p.m. after gunfire on Adams Drive. Two hours later, more shots were fired around the school, and two rounds hit the building, which had several teachers and staff members inside, police spokesman Harold Eley said. No one was injured. Police were first called to Adams Drive about 3:30 p.m. "Witnesses in the area informed police that they had observed two groups of teenage males with guns, shooting at each other," Eley said.

A man was found dead inside a condemned home in Portsmouth late last night after a lengthy standoff with police that included an exchange of gunfire with police. The man has not been identified to the media, and it is not clear yet whether he was killed by police or committed suicide. The standoff began around 5 p.m. at a house on Weaver Circle, when contractors working on the lawn reported to police that they had been confronted by a man who was inside the house. Police were told that the man had a weapon.

A dispute involving two men outside a popular midtown nightspot early Thursday escalated to shoving and then gunfire that left a Newport News man dead and another charged with murder. Police were withholding the victim's identity until detectives could talk to the man's family. A spokesman said the victim was 33. Police arrested a suspect within minutes of the shooting. The suspect -- , 26, of the 500 block of Dartmoor Drive, Newport News -- was charged with second-degree murder and using a firearm in a felony.

As one writer put it, not too many Americans were familiar with pop singer Selena Quintanilla Perez when she was alive, but a lot more know how she died. Selena, who recorded using just her first name, was a heroine to thousands of people who enjoy Tejano, a blend of traditional Mexican sounds and German polka. Police say that Selena was shot dead in Corpus Christi, Texas, by a woman who founded her fan club and helped manage her personal affairs. Selena had gone to a motel to meet with the woman, Yolanda Saldivar, whom Selena's business empire suspected of financial impropriety.

In the affluent Denbigh Plantation neighborhood, residents are treated to a sewage plant that smells like rotten eggs, an old landfill that sends off gaseous fumes and a minimum-security prison in their backyard. Neighbors say those annoyances, most of which were present when they bought their homes, might be tolerable if they weren't compounded by another pest: noisy gunfire from a nearby shooting range. The range, which is used for police weapons training, sits on City Farm Road and backs up to the mouth of the Warwick River.

- Earl Witts likes to spend summer nights sitting on the porch with his wife watching the people and cars pass by his Madison Avenue home. Today, however, Witts is rethinking those plans. On Tuesday afternoon a stray bullet from a neighborhood shootout struck his neighbor's 49 t h Street home. "If the mosquitoes aren't too bad we love sitting out here, but we probably won't be out here much this summer after what happened yesterday," Witts said. Police said a bullet struck but did not penetrate the siding of a home in the 600 block of 49 t h Street Tuesday afternoon during a shootout between a group of men. At about 2:50 p.m., an officer in the area of Brookridge Apartments on Peninsula Drive heard about 15 to 20 gunshots coming from nearby, Newport News Police Department spokesman Harold Eley said in an email.

KING AND QUEEN — Residents of rural King and Queen County who live near the G4S International Training Inc. compound adjacent to the Middle Peninsula Regional Airport understand the need for counter-terrorism training in the war on terror. But for them, enduring the sounds of the gunfire and explosions at the nearby sprawling facility on the marshy banks of the York River not only sacrifices their rural peace — even to the point some say they can't hear the television in their own living room — it's also above and beyond the call of duty.

- After growing up in Palestine amid the sounds of bombs and machine guns, Ismail Issa is not surprised by the gunfire that occurs around his Solo gas station and convenience store in the Southeast section of Newport News. Issa - who manages the business off Marshall Avenue - said shootings are common in the community, which surrounds the Newsome Park apartment complex. He said in the five years he's run the store, it has fallen victim to gunplay that occurs too often. The store has had stray bullets hit windows, light fixtures and doors.

HAMPTON — One man was killed early Saturday evening in a shootout with occupants of a passing sedan on Westwood Avenue that left residents wondering what's become of their neighborhood. The shooting occurred at 6:35 p.m. when a man walking in the 600 block of Westwood Avenue toward Pembroke Avenue was approached from behind by a blue sedan, said Cpl. Jason Price of the Hampton Police Department. Gunfire erupted between the pedestrian and one or more occupants of the sedan.

CHESAPEAKE — The last three months have been a bloody few for young people in Chesapeake. Five people, including a 14-year-old, were hospitalized Saturday night, after a Chesapeake cookout was interrupted by gunfire. It was the fourth such shoot-and-run attack in which victims 20 years old or younger were struck by gunfire in the city. In late June, a 5-year-old girl was struck by a bullet fired from a vehicle as she laid on the couch in her home on Yeadon Road.

After nearly two years debating the future of York's firearm discharge ordinances, a split Board of Supervisors Tuesday night narrowly repealed the county's restrictions on shooting guns in certain neighborhoods but decided to retain a restriction against firing guns larger than .22 caliber. After a nearly two hour discussion — that included a public hearing that drew 21 speakers — two 3-2 votes finally drew the debate to a close. In the first, supervisors Thomas Shepperd, Walt Zaremba and Sheila Noll succeeded in removing the firing resriction on all guns larger than .22 caliber from the original proposal.

KING AND QUEEN — Residents of rural King and Queen County who live near the G4S International Training Inc. compound adjacent to the Middle Peninsula Regional Airport understand the need for counter-terrorism training in the war on terror. But for them, enduring the sounds of the gunfire and explosions at the nearby sprawling facility on the marshy banks of the York River not only sacrifices their rural peace — even to the point some say they can't hear the television in their own living room — it's also above and beyond the call of duty.

So often the victims of gun violence are young people. What happens to the psyche of a person who grows up under the constant threat of violence? Think of the minds and spirits that are wounded, even if the bodies escape the gunfire that's so much a part of some urban areas. Meanwhile: In Milwaukee, a 9-year-old boy was fatally wounded as he fled gunfire that erupted during an argument that started during a playground basketball game. In Compton, Calif., two people were killed, including 4-year-old boy playing under a picnic table, in a drive-by shooting in a residential area.

A man was found dead inside a condemned home in Portsmouth late last night after a lengthy standoff with police that included an exchange of gunfire with police. The man has not been identified to the media, and it is not clear yet whether he was killed by police or committed suicide. The standoff began around 5 p.m. at a house on Weaver Circle, when contractors working on the lawn reported to police that they had been confronted by a man who was inside the house. Police were told that the man had a weapon.

NEWPORT NEWS -- A 19-year-old Newport News man was shot and killed Thursday afternoon. A black Nissan brought the shooting victim, David Walker III, to the emergency room entrance of Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News shortly after 3 p.m., according to Harold Eley, a spokesman for the Newport News police department. The Nissan – which contained a black male and a white male – drove off after leaving Walker there. Walker, of the 500 block of Haystack Landing Road in Newport News, died of a fatal gunshot wound at approximately 3:41 p.m. "We are trying to figure out who was in the car," Eley said.